Part 44

The origin of these four is being ignorant of Allah and of himself. If he knew his Lord, the attributes of His perfection and the qualities of His majesty and knew himself, and his defects and faults, he would never be proud, or angry, and would never envy anyone about what Allah granted him. Envy in reality is a way of showing enmity toward Allah; he hates the blessings of Allah to be granted to another servant while Allah loves it, and such a person likes it to vanish while Allah hates that. He is against Allah in His judgments, destiny, love, and hate. That is why Satan is in reality his enemy; as his sin resulted from pride and envy. Removing these two is done through knowing Allah, acknowledging Him. being satisfied with Him, repenting to Him, removing all anger from his soul and knowing that it is not worthy to be angry and seek revenge. If you do so, you will prefer it more than its creator and the most important thing to remove such a disease is to make it accustomed to be angry and satisfied because of Allah and for Him. Whenever it feels

something of anger or satisfaction when seeking Allah, in exchange it will lose something from anger and satisfaction.

The cure of desire is true knowledge and learning that giving the soul all it desires is the greatest cause behind depriving it from these desires, while protecting it from them is the best way to gain them. The more you close the door to desires, the more you would be reaching the desires in the most perfect way.

Anger is like a lion; if its owner sets it free, it will eat him. Desire is like a fire; if its owner starts it, it will burn him. Pride is like fighting against a king to take his Kingdom, if it does not destroy you it will expel you, and envy is like showing enmity to one who is more powerful than you. Whoever overcomes his desire and anger, Satan will depart from him and whoever’s desire and anger beat him, Satan will stick to him.

A Most Precious Gem Characteristics of those who do not Know Allah

Those who do not know Allah, His names, or His attributes and those who deny their reality are making Allah hateful to His creatures and closing the way for them to love and get close to Him by obeying Him. We will mention some examples:

Such people persuade weak souls by saying that obedience will not bring them the pleasure of Allah, the Exalted even if it was sincerely done and the servant, who exaggerates in obeying Allah both in secret and public, there is no trust or guarantee that the servant is safe from harm, and that Allah _ used to take His pious servant from the concave to the brothel, from monotheism to polytheism and playing music, and turns the heart from faith to disbelief. They quote evidence to prove their claims but they do not understand these proofs. They claim that this is the reality of monotheism and they recite the verses of Allah in which He says,

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which means, "He cannot be questioned as to what He does." (Al-Anbiya', 21:23)

And He, the Almighty says, 4B od SST al Sy SI Sb SG “Ate i Lalit >

which means, "Did they then feel secure against the Plan of Allah. None feels secure from the Plan of Allah except the people who are the losers." (Al-A'raf, 7:99)

And He, the Almighty says,

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which means, "And know that Allah comes in between a person and his heart (i.e. He prevents an evil person to decide anything).” (Al-Anfal, 8:24)

They claim that Satan is the source of their knowledge and that it used to be the head by Angels and that every place in both the heavens and the earth had the favor that Satan had bowed in it but destiny was unjust toward it and Allah turned its good eye into the most evil one. They reached the degree that some of their masters said, "You should be afraid of Allah exactly as you are afraid of a lion to jump on you without committing any sin." As proof they recite a hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "A man amongst you may do (good deeds until there is only a cubit between him and Paradise and then what has been written for him decides his behavior and he starts doing (evil) deeds

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* Recorded by Al-Bukhary, book of beginning of creation, chapter on mentioning Angels, no. 3208, and recorded by Muslim, no. 2643.

On bin ‘Abdullah bin ‘Utbah bin Mas'dd Al-Hadhly, Abu ‘Abdullah, from Ktfah, He was a poet, preacher, and narrator. He (may Allah be merciful to him) passed away in 115 A.H. See Tahdhib At-Tahahib, vol.8, 9.171, Tarfkh Al-Bukhary Al-Kabir, vol.7, p.131, Siyar Alam An-Nubala’, vol.5, p.103, and At-Tabgét, |bn Sa'd, vol.6, p.218.

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polytheism, obedience into disobedience, and piety into impiety, and can punish us forever, and then we will be loosing both this worldly life and the Hereafter.

If such belief increases in their hearts and souls, after that whenever they are ordered to perform acts of worship and neglect desires, they will be like the one who says to his son: if you write, your teacher becomes better, behave yourself and do not disobey him, he may punish you, and if you become lazy, negiectful and disobedient, he may honor you and make you close to him. The father strengthened this belief in his son's heart saying that he cannot trust or believe in neither any threat of any teacher for his wrongdoing nor believe in the promise of good for his good deeds. And when the boy grew up and became more qualified to handle business and position, his father said to him: this is the sultan of our country, who takes a thief from prison and makes him the minister and the Emir and takes the pious man from his job and puts him in prison forever, or kills or crucifies him. When the father said so, he made him hate the sultan and never trust him for any threat or promise. He removed any love for this sultan from his son's heart and replaced it with fear. Fear from an unjust person, who punishes the innocent. This miserable son lost the belief that deeds are either useful or harmful. He neither feels happiness when doing good deeds nor feels bad when doing evil deeds. This is what such people are doing to other humble people who listen to them and believe their words. Whoever wants to make people hate religion and Allah, he can simply say the same thing.

Those who call to this method believe that he is propagating monotheism, destiny, refuting the people of innovations, and * supporting religion. By Allah, a wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend. Allah wrote all reality and His Messengers are all witnesses, especially the Qur'an. If those who call for justice follow the method that Allah and His Messenger used in calling

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people, the world would be a better place. Allah, the Exalted revealed His words and He is the Truthful and the Faithful that He is treating people according to their deeds and rewarding them according to their actions. The good servant never fears any injustice; his good deeds will never be wasted. The servant never loses even a whit of his good deeds. Allah says,

which means, "But if there is any good (done), He doubles it, and gives from Him a great reward." (An-Nisa’, 4:40)

Allah also punishes those who commit sin without doubling or erasing it through repentance, regret, and asking for forgiveness, while good deed are doubled ten times until seven hundred times.

He, the Almighty reforms evil servants, accepts the hearts of those who are disobedient, forgives sinners, guides people who are astray, rescues those who are spoiled, teaches the ignorant, leads those who are confused, reminds those who forget, and shelters fugitives. But He punishes those who increase in disobedience and violate His limits, after calling them several times to repent, ask forgiveness, and acknowledge His Divinity. After loosing all hope in their response, acknowledging His Divinity, and His oneness, Allah punishes them for some of their disbelief, tyranny, and rebellion. lf the servant thinks about his condition, he would feel guilty, and admit that Allah was not unjust toward him and that he was simply unjust to himself. Allah says about the people of the Heilfire,